A College in the Heart of New Jersey

In the late 1600s, Nassau Street (then King's Highway) was a major traveling route between the Raritan River and the Delaware River. In the mid-1700s, located halfway along the route between New York and Philadelphia, the village of Princeton began to grow along Nassau Street between what is now Bayard Lane and Moore Street. The village provided an overnight stay for travelers and, therefore, the early development and activity centered on taverns.

In 1756, The College of New Jersey, as Princeton University was then known, was relocated from Newark, NJ, to PrinceTown, NJ, with approximately 70 students.

The College trustees sought a new location, "More sequestered from the various temptations attending a promiscuous converse with the world...."

As quoted in "Princeton University Land," Gerald Breese, p.3

Images: Graphic Arts Collection and University Archives, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. Courtesy of The Historical Society of Princeton.
Photos: Courtesy of the Princeton University Office of Communications.